Posted by Rick Denney on January 12, 2003 at 12:23:51:
In Reply to: Air posted by René on January 11, 2003 at 16:51:39:
Your lung capacity is fixed by your body, and you can't change it. The most you can do is make better use of what you have.
People use the terms flow and speed. What do those terms mean? You already know the answer to this. If you want to blow out a candle from a foot away, what do you need? Speed. So, what do you do to get more speed? You purse your lips to make a small aperture. If you want to fog up a window with your breath, you want lots of air moving very slowly. So, what do you do? You open up your mouth wide to make a large aperture.
You control the aperture with your lips (i.e. embouchure). If you use your throat, tongue or teeth to do it, your sound will fall apart.
Most tuba playing requires more air and less speed than humans use in normal breathing, so you have to learn how to do it. The trick that made the best sense for me was to go to the hardware store, and get a PVC "pipe coupling" for 1/2" PVC water pipe (or, you can use a 1-inch section of 3/4" PVC pipe, which will have the same size inside diameter). Put it in your mouth, between your teeth, and breathe through it. You'll be surprised at how quickly you can fill and empty your lungs through this piece of pipe. That will give you an idea of the effect of a large aperture. Go for that feel when you breathe in while playing, and remember that sense of really low pressure when you breathe out.
Rick "explaining the why as well as the what" Denney